Krogen 50′ Open: Progress Report #1

Last month in NAVAID, Jennifer shared a photo of the gelcoat being sprayed into the hull mold of the Krogen 50’ Open. Now, one month later, the lamination of the hull is complete. After the gelcoat was sprayed, the fiberglass resin and cloth were carefully laminated in place. We used a laser level (the red object on a tripod in one of the photos) when the coring was installed (the lighter color going up the hull sides) to make sure the coring began and ended as designed. Each piece of coring is cut from a template, is marked, and then put on board. Workers began at that laser set line, moving up, placing the pieces in their spot as if completing a puzzle. Based upon some of the boats I have surveyed over the years, I can assure you that not every builder does it this way.

At this point, the hull will sit in the mold for another three weeks as we continue on with the installation of bulkheads and stringers. To ensure they are exactly in the right place, square to each other to maximize their strength, we will again use the laser level.

Meanwhile, there are decisions to be made! We have started to look at countertops and think about drawer and cabinet sizes for the galley. There’s a lot to consider. For example, owners have typically chosen to store their dishes in a cabinet, but a few years ago, an owner requested a special drawer with movable pegs to really, really keep their dishes from moving while underway. Will we do the same thing? We are leaning that way—in our kitchen at home, we have a mixture of drawers and cabinets below the counter and find drawers easier to use.

Last week we received the first set of drawings of the master stateroom for our review. Looking at the layout of our drawers and cabinets, our closets, the laundry space, and, of course, the master head with the dual sinks that are standard on the mid-master version, has made assessing our organizational needs much easier. Janet and I just spent a weekend making sure we had drawers where we wanted drawers and cabinets where we wanted cabinets.

We’ve also started to explore what we want in terms of navigational electronics. I was raised using paper charts, a depth sounder, a hand bearing compass, and RDF (Radio Direction Finder)…so, I guess you could call me old school. But I see the value of the technology available today, and I think our navigational electronics will end up being what I would call “complete”, but not over the top. As we are just getting into that aspect of building the boat, I’ll hold off on anything more until we’ve had a chance to do more research.

Regarding entertainment systems, specifically television, there are four possible sources for TV signal. The simplest source is to plug into cable at a marina. Obviously, this source is under one condition—that the marina has cable TV! Another method would be to watch TV over the Internet. For this method to work, you must be at a marina that has WiFi or have a big data plan for your cell phone. A third, relatively archaic, method is to bring in a signal via a TV antenna, but this would only yield a handful of local stations. Lastly, and probably the most popular on our boats today, is to have satellite TV. It comes at a significant cost though–about $8,000 for the installation, plus the monthly charge for Direct TV. While that sounds like a lot of money, when you amortize it across 10 years and then compare it to your cell phone bill it puts it into perspective. We’ll probably have satellite TV.